New details on Headquarters in WWII: Mission Challenges, Emotes, Prestige, and more

In a new interview with EuroGamer, Sledgehammer Games’ Michael Condrey has shared new details on some of the features that will be available inside of Headquarters in Call of Duty: WWII MP. Headquarters is the new social space in-game, a first for Call of Duty.

Condrey tells EuroGamer that World of Warcraft’s Orgrimmar inspired some of the idea behind the Headquarters.

“Remember the first time you went to Orgrimmar in World of Warcraft? Remember that first time experience when you did your quest and you leveled up and you earned all these great rewards and then you walked into Orgrimmar and it was a bustling city of people with all these activities that made it a community, whether it was the guy who was just showing off his max rank, all purple mounts or people going to mail, or people gifting each other things? That sense of community was something we felt Call of Duty hadn’t capitalized on yet. That’s what our attempt with Headquarters is.”

When players first start up Call of Duty: WWII MP, you are sent directly to Headquarters. Headquarters’ location in-game is on Normandy Beach, 3 days after D-Day.

Headquarters in Call of Duty: WWII will offer mission challenges. Players can visit recruitment officer, challenge officer and divisions leaders to get new daily or other challenges. The challenges range from completing matches to other in-game actions. Once you complete them, you can visit the HQ and get a reward.

“Your divisions officer may say, hey, it’s time for you to head into battle. Go compete in War and be successful, bring back that success and we’ll give you a reward.

Some will be social quests. It might be a quest that sends you to the Nazi zombies experience, or compete in the 1v1 or create your first emblem.”

Alongside these challenges, Headquarters has different things for players to do directly inside the HQ space. Players can compete in the 1v1 pit, communicate with others through voice chats, or use emotes to salute other players. SHG tells EuroGamer that the emotes are “era-appropriate.”

Sledgehammer Games is also focusing a lot on the social aspect of Headquarters.

“We took a look at the behaviors of the Call of Duty multiplayer community and we recognized there are plenty of incentives to be proficient when you’re competing, when you’re fighting. But there wasn’t enough incentive for you to be a great member of the community, to be a social advocate.

It’s trying to build this camaraderie that was a part of the squads of WW2, men and women coming together for the greater good.”

As you earn higher social points, Sledgehammer Games will reward you with either new gear, calling cards, or other customization items.

As part of the game, there’s also a new mail system, where Sledgehammer Games might sent you a notification to redeem a reward in the HQ. Or the notification could be a brand new challenge for you to tackle in-game.

“In World of Warcraft, mail was a great vehicle to send me to this social space,” he says. “In Call of Duty: WW2, you might get mail from Sledgehammer Games. You’re playing a match of Domination or maybe the new War mode, and you get a little notification, hey, I’ve got mail. And you go to Headquarters to get your mail, and it’s a thank you from us, maybe some reward. And now you’re in the Headquarters and you see your friends and now you’re contributing to the social community. Then you go pick up your daily mission and it says, hey, jump into War mode. Now you jump back in.”

They’re also focusing a lot on the grouping up aspect of Call of Duty. Many players do play solo, while others join in on groups. Headquarters will allow players to find new people and go straight into lobbies with them.

“Grouping up will be a part of the Headquarters experience, which is a great way to find like-minded people in the community. Frankly, we haven’t always exposed that to the community in the way we should. You and I might be in, hanging out having fun, and then say, let’s go play some Zombies. We’ll be able to notify the lobby: ‘looking for zombies group’. We think that’ll be a fun way to get people to play together.”

There’s also going to be a new way to Prestige in Call of Duty: WWII. In previous Call of Duty titles, players just visited the Barracks in the in-game menu to prestige up their level. In WWII, HQ will show off players who prestige in a special way.

I think about the process of Prestige in Call of Duty. I’ve worked my butt off to Prestige. And I get to Prestige and I’m sitting on my couch by myself and I press a button and I get a little bit of fanfare – not a whole lot – and then I’m done.

You get to go to Headquarters and you get to meet the General, and you get to go up on the bluff overlooking on the beach, and you get to Prestige in front of all your friends with great fanfare. Prestige should have that level of fanfare. Imagine that moment! Nobody wants to go to a party alone. Let’s make that meaningful because you earned it.”

Lastly, Sledgehammer Games also revealed that they do plan to keep the Headquarters up to date and always evolving. They’re might even be seasonal based events in the game’s Headquarters.